Colombia's military said yesterday that troops had killed a top rebel commander in an attack on a jungle camp across the border in Ecuador in a severe blow to Latin America's oldest guerrilla insurgency.
Raul Reyes, one of seven members of the secretariat of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was killed in an operation that included an air strike on a camp and fighting with rebels across the border, Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos said.
Reyes was considered by analysts to be the No. 2 FARC commander and is the most senior member of the group to be killed in President Alvaro Uribe's US-backed campaign against the guerrillas fighting a four-decade-old conflict.
"As a result of this operation, 17 guerrillas were killed. Among them was FARC secretariat member Luis Edgar Devia Silva, better known as Raul Reyes," Mr Santos told reporters.
Colombia's El Tiemponewspaper published on its website a photograph of what it said was Reyes' bloodied corpse in a stained white shirt lying on a black body bag. Mr Santos said intelligence had revealed Reyes' movements near the border. After an air strike by the Colombian military, Colombian troops came under fire from guerrillas in Ecuadorean territory and they responded. Reyes' body was brought back into Colombia to prevent rebels taking it away, he said.
President Uribe contacted Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa to inform him of the operation and Quito sent troops to investigate. Venezuela and Ecuador often complain about the guerrilla war spilling over their borders. Violence from Colombia's conflict has ebbed under Mr Uribe, who has sent troops to retake regions under the control of armed groups.
But the FARC is still potent in remote areas, where it holds scores of hostages, including three Americans and French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has made freeing Betancourt a priority, urged all sides not to let the killing upset recent efforts to broker a deal to exchange jailed guerrillas for FARC hostages held for years in jungle camps.
Reyes, bespectacled and bearded, was one of the FARC's top political officers and the group's official spokesman who often sent statements from the mountains of Colombia. He was known for his tough stance in past negotiations with the government.